'Make a stand for independent, creative film making in a world where the pressures of conformism and commercialism are becoming more powerful every day'
Lindsay Anderson.

Thursday, 25 September 2014

Labor Day.

Jason Reitman
is a 36-year-old Canadian Film Director, screenwriter and producer who is best
known for three award-winning movies, Thank
You for Not Smoking (2005), Juno
(2007) and 2009’s Up in the Air. His latest movie to be released in the UK is a complex drama that
Reitman directed and wrote. Based on a novel by Joyce Maynard, Labor
Day (2013) stars Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin and 15-year-old Gattlin Tadd
Griffith who played Walter Collins in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling (2008).

Mother and son.

Set in 1987
Winslet plays Adele Wheeler a depressed single mum who lives in a large run
down rural house with her 13 year old son Henry (Griffith). When mother and son
make a rare trip to the local supermarket they are approached by a man who is
not only limping quite badly but also bleeding from a stomach and head wound, he
insists they give him a ‘ride’ to their home so that he can rest his injured
leg. The pair discovers that he has escaped from police custody by jumping out
of a second floor window - Frank Chambers (Brolin) was serving 18 years for
murder! He appears a considerate man and does threaten neither Adele nor Henry.
While he rests up over the weekend both of them feel drawn to the convict, each
for their own reasons. Reitman’s direction develops a sensual feel between
Frank and Adele from the start, which is partly explained by Adele’s loneliness
and isolation, and from which a relationship grows. When Frank begins to teach
Henry some everyday tasks along with the rudimental skills involved with
baseball the boy realises how much he is missing a father figure.

Bonding over a peach pie!

It becomes
quite a sentimental journey and I would question why any viewer would not empathise
with all three, especially Winslet who has succeeded in bring out the
venerability, beauty and sexuality of her character.The soundtrack has been composed by Rolfe
Kent who has worked with Reitman on three previous occasions. The house, were
most of the movie is set, and the surrounding areas are brought to life by the
cinematography of Eric Steelberg. It may not change your life but this modern
day fairy tale is a most satisfying and enjoyable watch.